The Great Ninjago Bake Off
by MasterofCupcakes
Summary: MY ENTRY FOR TJ'S USERNAME PROMPT CHALLENGE: When the Ninja are short of money again, they make the brave (or foolish?) decision to enter a baking competition. Will they survive the chaos of sugar highs, food fights, and, of course, a crazy fangirl? *COMPLETE*
1. Desperate times, desperate measures

**Titanium Jay has challenged the authors on this site to write a story based on their username (you can find the link on my profile!). And while I take this challenge very seriously, I obviously cannot write a very serious story for my own username. So, here we go…**

 **Btw, the setting of this story is after** _ **Skybound**_ **(i.e. Titanium Zane, Ghost Cole, Water Ninja Nya, and Jaya 2.0).**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Ninjago. And I do not even own the OCs in this story (except one)!**

* * *

Prologue: Desperate times, desperate measures

The six ninja were sitting around the dining table on board the Destiny's Bounty, their – currently not so mobile – ninja headquarter.

"I can't believe the rocket boosters are broken again." Cole complained. "I thought you had just upgraded them recently." He addressed Nya and Jay, who were sitting next to each other on the opposite side of the table.

"Oh, we have." The Water Ninja replied. "But that still doesn't mean that they can survive _everything_ …"

"This time, we'll make them fireproof I think…" Jay added, while shooting a glance at Kai.

"Hey, it wasn't entirely my fault. Lloyd was challenging me…"

"It doesn't matter whose fault it was." Cole interrupted him firmly. "What matters is that they are gone and need to be replaced. Did you already make an estimate what materials you need and how much this is gonna cost?" He asked the two skilled engineers in their team.

"Unfortunately, yes." Nya handed him a folded piece of paper. The ghost opened it and, when he saw the final number, he turned even paler and greener than he already was.

"Zane, what's our current financial situation?" He asked, passing on the paper sheet to the nindroid.

"Considering Ronin now owns our shares of the tea shop and that we…"

"Just the short answer, please."

"Not good at all. And most certainly not good enough to replace the rocket boosters."

"Jay, could we maybe use some of the money from your inheritance for now?"

"Uh, ahm, I-I don't think so." Jay replied, his cheeks turning bright red. "It's… uhm… pretty much… uhm… all gone."

"Jay, you idiot!" Cole exclaimed. "How could you have possibly spent already _all_ the money you inherited from your birthfather? We'll never get to fix the Bounty _this_ way if we don't start saving…"

"Well, excuse me. I didn't expect Sparkplug here to make some pretty fireworks with our rocket boosters." Jay tried to defend himself. "Besides, I've never heard any complaints from you when we play video games. Maybe because I can't hear them with the AWESOME NEW SOUND SYSTEM we got for the game room."

"And we should acknowledge that it was not Jay's fault, when we had to replace some of the kitchen appliances due to severe water damage." Zane added.

"I already said that I am sorry." Nya was apparently annoyed that her big blunder was brought up again. "I told you there were black smoke and a horrible smell coming from the kitchen, so I thought there was a fire – which wouldn't have been too unlikely – so I just wanted to help!"

Kai grinned "But it just turned out to be Cole making toast… man, he was _very_ lucky that you didn't hit him!"

"And that's why we've installed ghost sensors all over the Bounty now, so I'll never use my powers again with him around!"

"Can we please stop diverting from our original topic?" Cole still felt slightly uncomfortable talking about this very close experience. "We _really_ need some money, and fast."

"Maybe we shouldn't have fired Dareth as our manager. We've done a lot of charity work recently, but we haven't had any _paid_ jobs in ages." Lloyd commented.

"We are _not_ hiring him again." Nya stated firmly.

"Well, we've kept all the job offers we got since he left, why don't we check them ourselves?" Jay supported his girlfriend's claim.

Cole nodded. "Good idea Jay." He got up and went out of the dining room, only to return a bit later with a large pile of unopened letters that he dumped on the table. "Alright, let's have a look."

The ninja began to open the letters.

Lloyd was the first one to read out his letter. "This one is from Golden Dragon, the energy drink. They want to become our official sponsor." He shook his head. There's no way we are going to advertise that horrible stuff!"

"I have an invitation for us to attend a store opening." "Me too." Zane and Jay told their friends.

"Bo-ring." Kai commented and read the next letter. He whistled.

"Wow, did you know how much these magazines offer for exclusive interviews and photos? And they pay most for… let's see… mmh, weddings and babies…" He then looked at his sister and her boyfriend. "Just so you know, we are not _that_ desperate yet, okay?"

Soon, almost all the letters were opened and in a massive discard pile.

"Looks like there is only one letter left." Cole took the pink envelope from the table and opened it. "Ninjago TV would like to invite you to compete in _The Great Ninjago Bake Off._.."

"A baking competition, that's sooo much fun!" Jay called enthusiastically. "When I was little, my mum and I came second in the mother-son cupcake decorating competition…"

Zane agreed. "Baking is a very enjoyable activity. I would like to participate in this contest."

Cole also liked the idea. "Yeah, let's show all of Ninjago that ninja don't just fight, but that they also have some great kitchen skills!"

"Well, some more than others …" Kai mumbled with a side glance at the black ninja.

Lloyd hesitated. "But… what about _her_?" He asked, pointing at the picture at the bottom of the letter. It showed a young woman with short blond hair and brownish-green eyes. "Nellie, the host of the show, is one of our crazy fangirls…"

Kai smirked. "If you find her so annoying, what were you and Cole doing at her book launch event a few weeks back?"

"Uh, I-we…" Lloyd blushed.

Cole laughed. "If you're asking why we went there, that's easy. They had free cake. And lots of it. But if you really want to know what Lloyd _was_ doing there - and why he doesn't want to meet her again… let's just say that the most entertaining moment of the party was when _someone_ tripped and fell face first into a Black Forest Gateau…"

Jay burst out laughing. "Ah, how could we forget about it? _The_ _Cream Ninja_ was on the front page of pretty much every newspaper in Ninjago the next day..."

"Haha, very funny." Lloyd sulked. He hadn't touched a single piece of cake since that night.

"C'mon, it _was_ funny. And you would have thought so too, if it had happened to someone else…" Cole commented. "So, are we going to enter? Or should we rather go back to the Birthday Party Entertainment requ…"

"I vote for the baking contest!" Kai shouted. And the other ninja, apart from Lloyd, agreed.

The green ninja sighed. "Alright. Let's do this. It can't be worse than my last encounter with cake – and with Nellie…"

Cole grinned. "Don't worry too much about her. She probably won't even recognise you without the cherry on top…"


	2. Nellie and the Ninja

**Wow, thank you all so much for the incredible feedback! I was really surprised and excited about the number of followers/faves/reviews and all the great OCs that were submitted. Unfortunately, there are only six teams, so I won't be able to use all the characters. They still get some smaller roles, if that's okay with you.**

 **As some of you already know, TJ has decided to take a break from this site. She is missed a lot and I really hope that she will return in the future. But I'm definitely continuing this story!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Nellie and the Ninja

The limousine with the six Ninja arrived at the back gate to the large Ninjago TV site. When they walked to the hall where 'The Great Ninjago Bake Off' was filmed, Nya noticed that Jay was slightly lagging behind and she waited for her boyfriend to catch up with her.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Over there is the studio where we did that stupid Ninja Challenge show." He pointed to one of the other grey buildings. "When we came back here to do all those commercials and talk shows, we never had to get to this side of the campus. It just brings back some memories of… uh… not so great times."

They simultaneously turned their heads in the direction, where their friends were walking ahead of them and saw Zane's titanium body glistening in the sun.

Jay sighed and started to follow them.

"Jay, wait." Nya grabbed his sleeve to hold him back. He turned back around towards her.

The black-haired girl lowered her head. "I am sorry." She whispered.

Jay took her hand and gave it a little squeeze. "Hey, don't be upset. Everything turned out to be alright in the end."

"I wasn't just talking about Zane. I… _never_ apologised for what I did to you and Cole."

"Oh." Jay responded. "But… that wasn't only your fault, we were all idiots." He tried to comfort her.

"But _I_ was the one who started this whole mess. I was just so confused about this Perfect Match machine. And, to be honest, I enjoyed getting so much attention from two guys at once. But… I should have ended it, before it went out of control. When we lost Zane, we would have all needed to be there for each other, and not fight with our best friend…" Nya looked him in the eyes. "I love you. And I am sorry that I hurt you."

Jay hugged her. "I love you too." He gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "And I think I know what will make you feel better"

"Another kiss?"

"Not a bad idea, but I was more thinking about some chocolate frosting…"

Nya giggled. "You always know how to cheer me up, even when you were the one who was upset in the first place."

"That's who I am." Jay laughed and kissed her again. "C'mon, let's get bakin' now."

They walked over to the entrance to the TV studio, where their friends were waiting for them.

"Alright, everyone." Cole announced. "Are you ready for this?"

Lloyd shook his head. "Not really. But I have no choice I guess…"

"Cole, you have met Nellie before. I would suggest that you meet her first and then introduce her to us." Zane suggested. His teammates nodded in agreement.

Cole sighed. "Fearless Ninja behaving like a bunch of kids on their first day at school…"

He walked through the automatic door and to the reception desk.

"Good afternoon miss." He addressed the blonde girl in a white and pink stripy top. "My name is Cole and I… ahm… I mean we..." He pointed at his teammates standing nervously on the other side of the glass door. "… are here to meet Nellie for the Great Ninjago Bake Off."

The girl looked up, her purple eyes shining brightly. "So nice to meet you Cole. I am Danni, the show assistant. Nellie will be very happy to hear that you have arrived. I'll let her know and she is going to be here in a minute."

Less than half a minute later, the door leading into the studio building flew open and a young woman with short, messy white blonde hair and burst into the reception area, her hazel eyes sparkling with excitement.

"Cooole." She cried and her small frame embraced him in an earth crushing hug. "I am very happy to see you."

"I am… happy to see you too." Cole answered politely. "Thank you very much for inviting us."

"Oh, you don't have to thank me, I have to thank you for accepting." Nellie replied. "Also, it was not my idea, but my manager's. He thought it would be a good opportunity to how your fans that you are more than just a hot boygroup…"

"He sounds like a very considerate person."

"Oh, Dareth is simply the best!" Nellie told him enthusiastically. "Aww, Gayle is such a lucky woman…" She sighed absentmindedly.

Cole was rather perplexed by her comment. "So… ahem… about the show…"

"What? Oh, yes. Of course, the show." Nellie snapped out of her trance. "You are not here on your own, are you?"

"No, my friends are waiting outside." Cole reassured her.

Nellie spotted the Ninja through the glass door and immediately rushed outside. Cole followed.

"Hey, everyone. This is Nellie. Nellie, these are my teammates. Blue Ninja is…"

"Jayyyyyy!" The TV host squealed. "This is sooo exciting. You're my favourite ninja and I watched every single episode of your amazing show. I was able to steal some props from the studio, maybe you could sign them for me…" She hugged him very tightly and probably a bit longer than necessary.

"N-nice t-to meet you too." Jay answered nervously, noting the angry look on his girlfriend's face. "And th-this is N-Nya."

"Ah, yes… the famous Water Ninja…" Nellie responded. "I am _delighted_ to meet you."

They quickly shook hands. "Yes, _very_ nice to meet you." Nya glared at the other woman. "If you are such a great fan of Jay's, you probably know that I am his girlfriend…"

"And Nya is an incredibly strong and skilled ninja, she is so much more than just anyone's girlfriend or sister!" Jay added.

"Yep, but still _his_ girlfriend." Nya emphasised.

Cole quickly continued with the remaining three Ninja.

"Kai, can I take a selfie with you for my chirper feed?" Nellie requested from the Red Ninja, after he and Zane had been introduced – and given a hug.

"Sure, and please chirp it at Fi-ya13." **[*]**

"And… I think you have already met Lloyd." Cole presented the Green Ninja.

"Yes, I have." Nellie hugged Lloyd. "Good to see you again."

Lloyd was relieved that she did not mention the details of their previous encounter. Maybe she wasn't as bad as he thought…

But then… "Although… I almost didn't recognise you." Nellie chuckled. "Last time we met, your face looked… a bit different…"

Lloyd turned beet red from embarrassed. "I think five Ninja are more than enough for one competition…" He muttered.

"Hey, I'm just kidding. I didn't mean to upset you. C'mon everyone."

Nellie led the Ninja through the door into the studio building.

"We will start recording in about half an hour. But I want to briefly introduce you to the other contestants before the show." She explained.

"Other contestants?" Zane asked. "To my knowledge, there have ever been only six competitors in the Great Ninjago Bake Off."

"That's true." Nellie replied. "But because of the six of you being our special guests, we have changed the style of the competition. This time, we have twelve contestants in six teams."

Jay hopefully looked at Nya. "So, Nya. Do you maybe…"

"Oh no, sorry. Each of you will be teamed up with one of the other competitors." Nellie interrupted him. "Although we wanted to keep your involvement a surprise, the news has leaked through social media and we've received so many applications from your fans that we didn't want to disappoint them…"

Everyone looked suspiciously at Kai.

"Wasn't me. Believe me, I've learned my lesson."

"I bet it was Dareth."

"Cole is right. Pixal has just analysed all recent social media feeds with topics related to us _and_ the show. There is an 87.3% probability that the source of the information was someone called The Brown Ninja." Zane explained.

 _Great. We already had a Green Ninja suffering from cake allergy, an angry Water Ninja, a slightly insane host, and now we have to deal with more crazy fans…_ Cole thought. _I am beginning to worry that Lloyd was right – maybe it really was a bad idea to enter this competition…_

* * *

 **[* This was the Kai's chirper name in** _ **Public Enemy Number One**_ **.]**

 **Btw, Nellie does not have a crush on any of the Ninja (but on someone else as you may have noticed...), she is just a crazy fangirl and a bit annoying. But she will only play a minor role in the next chapters, those will focus** **on the** **actual** **teams (so much for my plan to do a one-shot…).**

 **Danni was submitted by a Guest reviewer (I hope it is okay that I use her in a different role, she will appear again in the next chapter).**


	3. Close encounters of the pink kind

**This is an edited version of chapter 3. I have rewritten the last part, so the teams will only be revealed in chapter 4 (but they haven't changed, of course!).**

 **Thanks to Fairycakeater, Guest#1, Guest#2, Apocalypse Ninja, Captain Midnight, LiaLia15, LegoTerraWarrior, MLPninjagomore13 and The Mayor of Ninjago City for commenting on the second chapter!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Close encounters of the pink kind

Lloyd reluctantly followed his friends, as Nellie and Danni led them along an endless corridor, the blonde TV presenter excitedly babbling nonstop all along the way.

 _I'll never complain again about Jay talking too much or too fast._ He thought.

They stopped in front of a large black door with a bright pink sign, indicating that this was the entrance to the set of _The Great Ninjago Bake Off_. Nellie turned to the Ninja. "Here we are." She said with a wide grin. "Are you ready to meet your new teammates?"

 _No, but I don't think I have a choice..._

Years of training had sharpened _all_ their senses. So when Nellie opened the door, the Green Ninja could detect the faint scent of the baking ingredients stored at the set, triggering some memories of the black forest gateau incident and causing Lloyd to feel slightly nauseous.

He gulped. _I need to get out of here before I get sick._

Cole looked at him worriedly. "Are you alright? Your face looks a bit green-ish…"

"I-I'll be back in a minute; I just need a bit of fresh air..." Lloyd replied. He turned around and quickly made his way back to the exit.

His head down, Lloyd hurried along the corridor, when he suddenly bumped into someone.

"Hey." A rather annoyed female voice complained. "Watch out where you're going."

Lloyd looked up and found himself staring at a very angry yet also very pretty girl in her late teens, around the same age as himself. She was wearing an ugly pink apron, which clashed horribly with her bright scarlet hair. The empty paper cup in her right hand as well as the fresh coffee and milk foam stains on her apron suggested that Lloyd had just made the redhead spill her cappuccino all over herself.

When she noticed the miserable look on Lloyd's face, the young woman gave him a small comforting smile. "Hey, you don't have to be upset. It was just a coffee. And luckily, they weren't able to serve it hot here at the cafe…"

She gestured at her apron. "Are you also here for the _Bake Off_?"

The pink-turned coffee-brown apron and the name tag – which had become unreadable from the coffee-stains – suggested that she was one of the other contestants in the competition.

"Y-yes, I am." Lloyd answered. "I was just…" … _trying to run away. No. Think of something else. "_ …uhm…just looking for… the bathroom." _Okay,_ t _hat was_ not _what I meant with 'something else'…_

"Toilets are over there, just around the corner."

"Tha-thanks."

Lloyd quickly headed to the men's room and splashed some cold water on his burning hot face. _At least I'm not pale or green anymore._ He thought, looking at the reflection of his flushed cheeks. And thanks to the little distraction on the corridor, he wasn't feeling sick either.

Lloyd sighed. What happened at the book launch really shouldn't bother him as much as it did. But, he just didn't like to be made fun of. He was the freaking Green Ninja, for crying out loud. The well-respected Saviour of Ninjago. The last time people had laughed at him, he had been just a little brat hanging off the candy store sign in Jamanakai Village… And that had been… well, it actually hadn't been _that_ long ago, but a lot had happened since then, so it just _felt_ like a very long time.

So when all of Ninjago, including his teammates, his Sensei and even his mother, had laughed about the newspaper cover showing the _Ultimate Sponge-jitzu Master_ , Lloyd had just felt again like the insecure little boy that he had thought to have long left behind.

And now he was probably up for another public humiliation. Home economics had not been one of the subjects on the curriculum at Darkley's School for Bad Boys, so Lloyd's baking skills were rather limited.

He dried his hands and face with a paper towel and exited the washroom. When he turned around the corner back onto the main corridor, he found the red-haired girl waiting for him. She had removed her coffee-stained apron and had replaced the empty paper cup with two full ones.

"Here, you look like could use one." She handed him one of the cups as they started walking. "I've asked them to put lids on this time."

"Thanks." He replied. "And I am really sorry for earlier."

She laughed. "Nevermind. I guess it must have been urgent... And I am sure they have plenty more of these awful things." She added, gesturing at the soiled apron hanging over her left arm. "They should have put _me_ in charge of the colour and design, I have an amazing fashion sense."

Lloyd couldn't help but agree with her. The tall and rather busty girl definitely looked much better in her yellow low cut top and the _very_ tight skirt of the same colour.

"Before you continue staring at my missing name tag, I'm Ashleena Springwood. But you can call me Ashley."

"Uh, n-nice to meet you, Ashley." Lloyd blushed again. "I-I am Lloyd G-Garmadon."

They stopped in front of the the black door with the pink sign. Lloyd had been so distracted by Ashley and their conversation, that he hadn't noticed that they were back at the entrance to the baking competition.

Ashley nodded at him. "Good luck, Lloyd Garmadon."

She then opened the black door and called: "Has anyone lost a Green Ninja? I found one!"

Lloyd followed her into the room behind the door and saw his teammates and Nellie talking to three girls and two boys who were all wearing the same pink apron.

When he noticed Lloyd entering the room, the Red Ninja excused himself and came over to his friend.

"Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. "Cole said you looked like you were going to throw up. I was going to look for you now, we were just done with the introduction to our baking partners."

"I am fine." Lloyd reassured his big brother. "I just wanted to get some fresh air."

"And you also got coffee and a hot girl." Kai smirked. "Looks like my li'l bro' is growing up… well, you've learned from the best, haven't you?"

"…"

Ashley, who was currently speaking to Nellie, looked over and gave Lloyd a little wink.

"So tell me, how did you meet her?" Kai enquired.

"Uh, I asked her where the toilets are, after I made her spill her coffee all over herself…" The Green Ninja admitted.

"That would not have been _my_ usual strategy, but it seems to have worked." Kai remarked.

Nellie walked over to the two boys. "I am really glad to see that you are back, Lloyd. And as you have already met Ashley, I won't have to introduce you to your baking partner." She said. "But could I please ask you both to see Danni and get your apron before we can start with the show?"

* * *

A few minutes later, all twelve contestants were seated comfortably on two large pink sofas. To their huge relief, the Ninja had been given aprons in their respective signature colour (and Cole had even received a waterproof black apron), although Ashley had almost succeeded in convincing Zane to trade his white apron for her fresh pink one.

Nellie, who was sitting in a matching armchair, had given a very _enthusiastic_ welcome to both the live audience in the studio and the viewers at home and was just explaining the new rules of this year's baking competition.

"I am delighted to announce that, in addition to the six finalists from our auditions, Ninjago's beloved ninja have accepted the invitation to take part in this year's competition. Please give a big round of applause for Jay, Cole, Zane, Kai, Lloyd, and Nya."

The audience were more than happy to follow this request. And Lloyd noticed the many _Marry Me Kai_ and similar posters that were held up by their – mainly female – fans, confirming Nellie's earlier statement that the 'secret' of their participation had already been leaked to the public.

"Which means that we now have six teams of two bakers instead of six individual contestants." The presenter was finally able to continue. "Each team has to produce one cake of their choice together and me and my colleagues will not only judge the result but also the team effort."

After this introduction, the host and the contestants made their way over to a different part of the studio. The kitchen area contained a shared area with a large fridge and pantry as well as six nicely sized and well equipped kitchen stalls that were arranged in two rows. And, to Lloyd's surprise, those were _not_ pink.

"The teams each have their own baking station." Nellie explained to the audience. "And you can probably tell from the colours, which ninja gets to work at which kitchen."

The green ninja was glad to see that the baking station in his colour was in the back row, next to the red and light blue one. The one in front of (presumably) his was black and next to a red one. The two kitchen stalls at the front were white and blue, respectively.

Nellie then smiled at the camera. "I am sure that you are just as curious as our contestants to find out who will get to work with which ninja. But… you'll have to wait just a little bit longer." She stated. "We will be back with you shortly, after a little break brought to you by our partner O' _Grandma's Baking Ingredients_."

* * *

 **Ashley is one of the OCs in Apocalypse Ninja's** _ **Destiny's Path**_ **series. It's a great series and I highly recommend reading it (you can find the link to the first book on my profile!), so I was very excited that AN has given me permission to use one of their characters.**

 **The teams are:**

 **1: Jay and Tori / NinjaPony**

 **2: Zane and ArcticHazard / Twinfeather**

 **3: Kai and Crystal / KRR**

 **4: Cole and Lia / LiaLia15**

 **5: Lloyd and Ashley / Apocalypse Ninja**

 **6: Nya and Dawn / SpiritWolfMusicalWriter**

 **Judges are:**

 **\- Rin / Kiritoandrinforever**

 **\- Kate / MLPninjagomore13**


	4. Baking Buddies

**It's been quite a while since the last update, so I'll try to keep this author's note as short as possible.**

 **I have made some edits to the previous chapter, because I wasn't too happy with the last part of it. But the 'pairings' are still the same, of course!**

 **And just a reminder this story takes place after** _ **Skybound**_ **but before** _ **DotD**_ **(yep, it's been that long since I've started it…)! [Whoohoo,** _ **Hands of Time**_ **is FINALLY on CN (UK/Ireland)!]**

* * *

Chapter 4: Baking Buddies

During the commercial break, the ninja went to discuss some of the 'baking arrangements' with their host.

"Why do _they_ get to be at the front?" Kai and Cole complained, pointing at Jay and Zane.

"Simple. Jay is the ninja with the most experience in front of TV cameras." Nellie replied with a very _professional_ smile. "And I heard from Dareth that, between the six of you, Zane is the most skilled chef so I'm sure our viewers will looove to see him in action."

"And why do I get the place which is the furthest away from my boyfriend?" Nya enquired.

"Because you are supposed to interact with your baking partner, without any distractions." Was the, undeniably logical, answer.

Nya pulled her brother aside. "Kai, you are gonna be behind Jay. Will you keep an eye on him for me?" She whispered. "I don't like her."

"Sure, will do sis. Don't worry." He replied, giving his sister a reassuring smile.

The red ninja had noticed that their youngest teammate hadn't said anything during the whole discussion, but he looked much happier – and less pale – than before. It must be a huge relief for the Green Ninja to _not_ be the centre of attention for once. And his earlier encounter with Ashley had certainly also contributed to Lloyd's improved mood.

Looking at said girl, Kai's thoughts wandered off to another redhead. He hadn't heard from Skylor in a while. But a few weeks back, Nya and Jay had told their friends about some very confusing and to some extent illogical events that in the end had not even taken place (and Kai was quite happy that he didn't remember the whole ordeal). However, not only had they mentioned that Skylor had been one of the 'ninja replacements' supporting Jay and the team in stopping a wedding involving Kai's own sister, according to the Master of Lightning she had also hit on Kai during their brief encounter. Maybe he should call her – and maybe he should do it now before the restaurant owner would get to see his kitchen skills on the telly…

"Attention, everyone! We'll be back on in 30 seconds!" Nellie called, before Kai could put his plan into action. "Ninja, can you please go to your positions, while the others come over to me."

"Good luck everyone." Cole told his teammates, just as he would do before one of their regular missions. "And don't forget, a ninja _never_ quits!"

* * *

Before they separated to take their places, the blue ninja gave his girlfriend a quick kiss on the lips, seeking cover behind the large communal fridge to make sure they were _not_ caught by the cameras this time. Jay's last appearance on screen had been his kiss with Nya on the hospital roof that, thanks to Dareth, had been broadcasted all over Ninjago. This had resulted in the two of them being constantly chased by paparazzi and had also contributed to their decision to fire their manager. Since then, the two of them had refused to do any interviews or any other public appearances. Until now.

Jay walked over to the blue baking station in the front row, nervously fiddling with the straps of his apron.

Why in Ninjago did Nellie have to mention his TV experience?

It was not like he had much enjoyed his job as TV presenter and, as he had told Nya earlier, he didn't like to remember the 'dark ages' following Zane's sacrifice in New Ninjago City in general. Actually, none of them did.

 _But… as Sensei always tells us, the past is the past and we've managed to leave this sad time behind us._ He told himself. _So, let's be positive and focus on the present._

And the present was not only looking much better for him, right now it was also looking blue. Jay's kitchen area was of exactly the same shade as Jay's first 'real' ninja gi (not counting their black training outfits), even complemented with silver drawer and cabinet handles.

Jay smiled. The colour blue always had a comforting and calming effect on him, just like his small bedroom in his parents' trailer on their junkyard. And, of course, it also played a major role in his relationship with Nya.

Jay was still reliving their first encounter and 'conversation' in his memory, when he suddenly realised that Nellie had just started to introduce the baking teams and all eyes as well as multiple cameras were on him.

"Our first team, in the blue kitchen right here at the front, are Jay, _Ninjago's most lovable ninja_ , and Tori Smith, our finalist from Jamanakai Village."

Before the show, the Ninja had only been very briefly introduced to their 'teammates', but they had not been able to interact with each other at all, so Jay interestedly watched the young girl with long dirty blond hair walking towards him, trying to find out more about her character or interests based on her appearance. She was wearing a purple tank-top, blue jeans and purple sneakers and had decorated the standard pink apron with white polkadots and a black trim with white polkadots.

 _Her name's Tori and she seems to like polkadots and the colour purple._ He thought, falling back into the role of TV host. _Take a note - ugh, I am starting to sound like my dad…_

When they shook hands, Jay could see the nervousness in her hazel/green eyes.

"Hi, I'm Jay. Nice to meet you." He gave her the same encouraging smile that had always helped to calm down the nervous contestants of the _Most Ultimate Extreme Ninja Challenge Ever_.

She carefully smiled back, revealing a small scar on the left side of her upper lip. "My name's Tori and I am so excited to meet you. I'm a huuuge fan of yours."

Jay grinned. "Thanks, you sure you're not confusing me with Kai?"

Tori laughed and vigorously nodded her head. "Absolutely." She blushed. "Oops, I hope he didn't hear me."

Luckily, everyone's attention was currently focused on Zane and his baking partner, meaning this was a good opportunity to quickly get to know each other off-camera.

Jay tried to think of a good way to re-start their conversation. Maybe he should have read more in Cliff Gordon's book. Or maybe not, considering the content and helpfulness of those parts that he _had_ read. And he really didn't want to use the standard game show host and candidate conversation. After all, he would have to work _with_ her and not send her to her doom on the _Gauntlet of Humility_.

Jay realised that this could be a good starting point for their conversation. The cake they were supposed to make together, not the _Ninja Challenge_ , of course. Tori had to know a bit about baking, so this topic would most likely help her calm down – both of them, actually. And, as seen with his teammates, knowing the other person's food preferences could help understand their character in general.

"So, why don't we get started with our project?" The inventor asked. "It it's okay with you, we can work and talk at the same time."

"Great, I like to talk while baking." She replied.

"Me too." Jay agreed. _Haven't actually tried it but I like to talk while doing anything…_

"Is there any cake that you particularly enjoy baking?" Tori enquired.

"My mum has taught me some baking and I sometimes help Zane baking, but I have no favourite cake to make. But I like to _eat_ anything with chocolate. Especially those that are decorated with lots of sweets… mmmh. What kind of cake did _you_ make for the auditions?"

"I made an Orange Cake, with cream frosting and orange chocolate ganache. My mum always makes this one for Birthdays and family occasions."

"Orange chocolate sounds great." Jay agreed. "Alright, let's get bakin'."

* * *

While the main colour of Zane's kitchen was pure white, all handles were of a shiny silvery metal. 'G _enuine_ _Titanium.'_ Pixal had confirmed. _'At least they have done proper research and are making the effort.'_

The nindroid watched with interest as the dirty-blonde girl joined his blue-clad brother, observing their interaction. As their host had stated correctly, Jay _was_ the most experienced in the show business. While Zane was certain that he was not _feeling_ that way, Jay _appeared_ to be very confident and comfortable in front of the camera.

 _Introduce yourself. Shake hands. Smile._

Zane would have liked to continue watching Jay and his partner off-camera, but he knew that he would not get that opportunity, his team being up next.

At the same time, PIXAL was analysing the contents of the drawers and cupboards. Each kitchen had high quality baking equipment – probably a 'gift' from the manufacturer (and showing their logo and name in large letters on every item) – and standard ingredients like eggs, butter, flour, sugar, soda and baking powder. Other items, including fresh fruit, were available in the shared pantry and a large communal fridge.

"Our second finalist is one of our heroes in the Ninjago Army. Please welcome ArcticHazard, who will join Zane in the white team. Or should I rather call them Team Titanium."

 _Team Titanium. I like that._ Zane thought. It sounds… cool.

He took in his teammate's appearance. Surprisingly, the boy had very messy hair, not the typical military style haircut. Under his pink apron, he was wearing simple jeans and a plain white shirt.

Despite being the Titanium Ninja now, Zane still had a fondness for the purity and innocence of the colour white. After all, it was the colour of the snow-covered Birchwood Forest, his first home. And very importantly, white also made everything appear clean. Their white baking station definitely was lot cleaner than any of the kitchens he had shared with his brothers and Nya. At least they finally had a dishwasher in the spacious kitchen of their new home, the Gordon Estate…

Just as he had seen Jay do, Zane gave his baking partner a bright friendly smile and offered his hand. "Good morning. My name is Zane and I will be your baking partner for this competition."

With a stoic face, the boy accepted his hand and gave him a very firm, even for the nindroid, handshake. "Good morning Zane. It is my pleasure to meet you. My name is Arctic Hazard, but you may call me Arctic."

"The pleasure is all mine, Arctic."

When Nellie started to announce the next paring, Zane expected the other to continue their conversation, but there was no reply.

The nindroid was slightly confused by the silence. When he was with in his brothers' company, it was never quiet, _someone_ would always talk. Sometimes, they would try, just to annoy the Blue Ninja who could not deal with something like awkward silence and would sooner or later – usually sooner – break it with one of his more or less funny jokes. Maybe he could use a joke in this situation. But it appeared inappropriate to him to open on of his panels and reveal his insides in front of his brand new acquaintance, to switch on his humour switch. He therefore went through his database of Jay's most frequently used puns, to find one fitting for this situation.

"Considering your name and my element, one could even say it is _ice_ to meet you."

That was a very bad one, even for Jay's standards, and Zane knew that as soon as he the words left his audio output device. But to his surprise, Arctic chuckled quietly and gave him a weak smile. "Very good. I need to remember this one." He said, more to himself than to Zane. But it was a start.

"The two of you have already used 2.25 minutes of your valuable competition time to introduce yourselves and _break the ice_ , so I believe the three of us should now focus on preparing the cake." PIXAL informed them.

"Please meet PIXAL who, as always, is right." Zane stated. "Do you have a preferred cake?"

"I have been informed that you are an expert chef and excellent baker. I would like to use this opportunity to learn from you, if this suggestion is agreeable to you." Arctic replied politely.

"My database contains 2632 different cake recipes, but I use only 5 of them on a regular basis. I would very much like to take the opportunity and make one of the other 2627 cakes, preferably one _without_ chocolate." Zane explained. "PIXAL has analysed the available ingredients and compared them to the 1979 chocolate-free recipes in my database. She suggests that we make either a Mango Cake or Vanilla Cheesecake."

Arctic took a moment to think about the options. "I agree with Mango Cake. The judges will have to taste six rich cakes and gateaus today, so I think some fresh fruit will be beneficial for their health."

* * *

The pale, skinny boy hadn't said a single word since their formal introduction. He was simply glaring at Kai with his dark blue eyes – well, at least with his left dark blue eye as the other one was covered by a side swept bang with a blue highlight.

Kai sighed. This was not fair. He could deal with fan _girls_. Probably way better than Lloyd, Jay or Cole. _Especially_ Jay. And Zane's teammate was at least polite, even if he was a bit _cold_. But no, Kai had been paired up with _Crystal Stone._ And from the moment they had been introduced to each other, the black-haired boy had made it crystal clear that he didn't have a very high opinion of the red ninja (to put it nicely).

"We are making a chocolate chip cheesecake." He finally said, without even asking if Kai was okay with it. Not that he minded the choice, but it still would have been nice to be asked for his opinion. Without waiting for a reply from his teammate, Crystal removed his apron and took off his bright red hoodie.

"Nice jumper." Kai commented. "I have a similar one."

"I am not surprised. Your taste in fashion appears to be very limited." Crystal replied coldly, refitting his pink apron over his bright orange shirt.

"You're the one to talk…" Kai mumbled. "At least _my_ colours match."

"It is not too difficult to match only _one_ colour with itself. But we are not here to chat, we are here to bake."

"Sure, what can I do?"

"I really don't know what you _can_ actually do. Are you able to handle a sharp knife?"

"Of course I am. I can even handle the mighty _Sword of Fire_." _And, by the way, I am a freakin' blacksmith._

"If you want to make yourself useful, get some chocolate from the pantry and chop it. Use the high quality 72% chocolate, not the kiddies' stuff like cheap milk chocolate or weird flavours, that you probably eat."

 _Cole and I like dark chocolate. Lloyd prefers milk chocolate and Jay is the one who eats chocolate with mint or orange flavour._

But for once, Kai didn't feel like arguing. He walked over to the pantry and took several bars of the best dark chocolate available, a few more than required for the cake.

This was going to be a long day. He would definitely need some of it for himself.

* * *

Cole adjusted his waterproof apron made out of black plastic for the umpteenth time. _I don't look like a baker or even a ninja with this… thing, more like a butcher or an undertaker._

"Next up in the black team are everyone's favourite ghost Cole and Lia, the winner of our audition in Stiix." The host announced and the Master of Earth was soon joined by a young yet tall girl with curly brown hair.

"Hi Lia. Lovely to meet you." Cole gave her a short and _very_ gentle hug, avoiding his earth-crushing handshake.

"Hi Cole. It's great to meet _you_." Lia gave him a bright smile, her brown eyes sparkling with excitement. "And I can't wait to get started, I looove baking."

"I really like baking, too. And cooking as well." Cole told her. "Unfortunately, it's my teammates who don't like me to do it."

"Really?" She sounded surprised. "Why that?"

"My creations are not exactly to their taste."

"Uhm, what kind of _creations_ are you talking about? Are you using any special ingredients? Like... sour milk or rotten eggs or so?" She sounded slightly worried.

"No, it's not like that. They just don't agree with my _creative_ combinations of ingredients and flavours, like Peach Wellington or my famous tuna and gooseberry panini."

Lia looked at him slack-jawed. "Those are a very… unique and... interesting combinations. But… uhm, maybe we could stick to a more traditional recipe for this competition?"

"What kind of traditional recipe were you thinking about?" Ugh, ' _traditional' cooking always sounds a bit boring to me. Unless Zane makes it, of course._

"My favourite cake is carrot cake with a cream cheese frosting. Would you be okay with this?" _Okay, that's not boring at all._

"I love carrot cake, especially the frosting." Cole replied.

"Me too. If you want, we can make a bit more."

Cole grinned. "Definitely."

 _And I already have an idea on how to improve it._

* * *

The moment Lloyd had been dreading all morning had finally arrived. It was his turn now to meet his baking partner on camera.

"And in the green team, we have Ashleena Springwood from Ninjago City, together with Ninjago's very own Green Ninja and Ultimate Spinjitzu Master."

Lloyd waited for Nellie to continue her announcement. But it didn't happen.

He frowned. _Hey, I have a name, you know? I am not just the Green Ninja and apparently Ninjago's property, I am also myself. I am Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon._

Slightly irritated, he watched Ashley as she confidently walked over to join him in the green and golden kitchen. She ignored Lloyd's outstretched hand and embraced him to give him a short kiss on his left cheek instead. And although he was pretty sure she was just doing it to annoy all the Lloyd-fangirls watching the program, he still couldn't help but enjoy it a little bit.

"Hey Mr Ninjago's very own Green Ninja and Ultimate Spinjitzu Master. I thought you were famous, how come she doesn't even know your name?" She whispered in his ear. _So at least I wasn't the only one who noticed…_

Lloyd felt himself blushing. "H-Hi Ashley. I-It's nice to meet you."

"It's great to _finally_ meet you too, _Lloyd_." She replied with a wink, putting an emphasis on his name. "I am very excited to have the opportunity of working with the amazing Green Ninja." The last part was obviously meant for the audience as well as to please their host. And it seemed to do the job, for the attention soon moved on to the final pairing.

Lloyd took a deep breath and sighed in relief.

"You're alright?' Ashley asked with a genuinely concerned look, putting her right hand on his left shoulder.

"I-I am fine, thanks." He replied. "I-I really hope you were saying the last bit just for the camera, otherwise you're going to be very disappointed."

She raised an eyebrow. "How come?"

"I'm not very good at… this." Lloyd had no idea why he actually revealed his secrets to a complete stranger. But it felt good. "To be honest I have no idea what I am actually doing here." He continued. "I'm sure that I'm going to mess up and then everyone will laugh at me." _And that's probably the reason why they've invited me anyway, after the Black Forest Incident at the book launch…_

But Ashley didn't laugh. "I don't think anyone would actually _want_ to make fun of you. People admire you. And no one can expect the grand saviour of Ninjago to be a master baker." She told him. "You have a lot of other skills. And nobody can be good at _everything_." The redhead then smirked. "Well, except for me of course. And that means that I am also an excellent teacher. So, stop whining and let's get to work, Mr Garmadon."

Lloyd smiled. "And what would be my first lesson, Ms Springwood?"

"To relax and enjoy the competition, regardless of the outcome."

* * *

Having been placed in the last team and at the very back of the studio, Nya watched patiently as her boyfriend and their brothers were joined by their baking teammates. Finally, there was only one young girl with freckles and short blonde hair left sitting on the pink sofa.

Nya was very happy to have a female baking partner today. First, it meant that she wouldn't have to deal with a jealous boyfriend and an overprotective brother, and secondly, she was actually looking forward to some 'girl time'.

She would never admit it openly, for it was already tough enough for the _girl ninja_ to be taken seriously, but Nya sometimes missed spending time with her old friends back home.

Strangely enough, her closest girl-friend recently had been Dogshanks. Although they had started out as enemies, they had both enjoyed their regular 'playdates' and had become quite good friends. Nya was still wondering how she and the other Skypirates were doing now. She sincerely hoped that it was true what Flintlocke had told about them all living fairly good lives in their different realms. If only Sensei Wu would let her and Jay visit them 'undercover', just to make sure they really were doing fine…

"And last but not least, we have Dawn McCarthney from Domu and Nya Smith, the Water Ninja from Ignacia." Nellie told the audience, bringing Nya's attention back to her current 'playdate'.

After meeting a rather hostile Nellie earlier, Nya had kind of expected their host to have teamed her up with one of those crazy Ninja fangirls (or, even worse, a Jay, Cole or _Jole_ fangirl) who despised the Master of Water, because she got to 'hang out with the _real_ Ninja'. But when she had briefly spoken to Dawn before the show, they had gotten on pretty well, much to the Water Ninja's surprise. Hopefully, they would find some common interests to talk about.

After they had introduced themselves to each other in front of the camera, it was already time for the next commercial break. From the corner of her eyes, Nya saw Kai leaving the studio in a bit of a rush. _He's probably just going to the bathroom._

But there was no time to further think or worry about her brother. The other teams had been given a head start on them, so Nya and Dawn decided to immediately get started on their cake and have a chat while working together.

"What kind of cake were you thinking of making for the competition?" Nya asked. "You must be an excellent baker if you have made through to the final."

Dawn laughed. "The auditions were a complete joke. Half of the people just brought some biscuits from the supermarket. And Nellie has no clue about baking herself…" She pressed a hand to her mouth. "I probably shouldn't have said that." She worriedly looked around to find out if this statement had been noticed or, worse, recorded. But to their relief, it did not seem to be the case.

Nya smiled at her. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me." _And I don't like Nellie anyway._

"But between the two of us, you must still be the better baker. So, any suggestions?"

"What about chocolate fudge cake?"

"Sounds good to me."

 _That's one of the cakes Zane has to make for us quite regularly. Let's see if two girls can beat a nindroid._

* * *

 **I have already decided on a cake for Lloyd and Ashley, it just didn't fit in this chapter, so you'll have to wait for the next one. And don't worry, the** **teams that only had a short paragraph here will get more attention in the next chapter!**

 **But I probably won't be able to get that done until after Easter. I have given up chocolate for Lent (and am still suffering from withdrawal), so some parts of this chapter were already hard enough to write ;).**


	5. Keep calm and bake on

**Has anyone else had problems with getting (or rather NOT getting) email notifications on story updates?!**

* * *

Chapter 5: Keep calm and bake on

Carrying several bars of high quality dark chocolate, Kai returned to his kitchen stall, where Crystal, his baking partner, had already started to prepare the crumb base for 'their' cheesecake.

As his 'teammate' completely ignored his presence, the Master of Fire wordlessly took out the longest and sharpest kitchen utensil from their knife block and began chopping up the chocolate.

* * *

"I've found the desiccated coconut. Do we have everything we need?" Cole asked his baking partner. The Master of Earth had been very surprised to see how many different ingredients go into an ordinary carrot cake, even before his modifications.

"Let's better check now before we get started." Lia looked at her recipe. "All the standard ingredients, like flour, sugar, oil, eggs, and butter are here." The girl explained. "And then we got the coconut, cream cheese for the frosting, cinnamon, a tin of pineapples, walnuts, raisins and, of course, carrots."

"And don't forget these." Cole handed her a green bag he had taken from the communal freezer.

"What are those?" Lia looked confused – and slightly nervous.

"Peas." Cole simply stated.

"Peas?"

"Yes. You know, people always seem to complain about the different ingredients in my dishes not going well together. So, I thought about what would go well with carrots. And there's simply nothing better than peas with carrots."

 _And I can't believe no one has tried this before._

"Uhm, but this cake already has a lot of ingredients that work well with carrots but not so much with peas… Like… the… uhm, raisins…"

The Black Ninja was glad to have an experienced baker on his team, he hadn't thought of this possibility at all. But luckily, he already had a solution to this problem. "Why don't we just replace the raisins with the peas?" He suggested. "Then we don't have to worry about adjusting the total amount either."

"I don't think… the… walnuts would taste nice in a cake without raisins."

It was obvious that the brown-haired girl still didn't agree with his idea. But then, much to Cole's surprise, she shrugged her shoulders. "Well, if it doesn't work out, there will always be the next baking competition." She grinned. "But making a _Cole Brookstone original_ is a once in a lifetime opportunity I just wouldn't want to miss. So, let's do it."

The Black Ninja broke out in a huge smile. "Thanks. And I'm sure it will be great."

"Maybe we could decorate the cake with peas and carrots made from icing and food colouring." Lia suggested.

Cole nodded in agreement. "And marzipan potatoes please."

* * *

Kai was so caught up in his work that he didn't stop until all eight bars – including his own 'emergency supply' – were cut into perfectly shaped and sized chocolate chips.

He looked around, curious to see what was happening around him.

In front of him, Jay and Tori were speed-talking their way through what appeared to be _all_ levels of _all_ 22 instalments of the _Serpentine Tomb Raider_ video game series while grating orange zest at lightning speed (Jay) and sifting the dry ingredients for their orange cake into a bowl (Tori), respectively.

Beside them, Arctic interestedly observed as Zane gently folded the beaten egg whites into the chiffon cake batter for their Mango Cake.

Behind the white team, next to Kai's own kitchen area, Cole and Lia were caught up in a friendly discussion, most likely about Cole's interpretation of the recipe.

As their team had been the last one announced, Nya and her baking partner were still introducing themselves to each other, it looked like they were getting along quite well.

From behind him, Kai could hear the playful banter going on between Lloyd and Ashley. The Red Ninja decided _not_ to turn around and risk embarrassing his little brother. Instead, he directed his attention on his own partner.

Crystal had put the tin with the cake base to the side and was now measuring the ingredients for the cream cheese mixture. Kai was rather impressed that he didn't need to use a recipe to know the exact quantities.

"Uhm, I am finished with the chocolate chips." He carefully told him.

"Great, thanks." The black-haired boy replied, much to Kai's surprise. Apparently, Crystal was so focused on his job that he even forgot to insult his baking partner. This was a good opportunity for the Red Ninja to have a normal conversation with his teammate and maybe even find out a bit more about him.

"Wow. You're really good. How come you don't need a recipe?" He asked.

"I do a lot of baking. And especially this cake."

"Why that?"

"It's my boyfriend's favourite cake."

A small smile formed on Crystal's face as he absentmindedly fiddled with the silver raindrop charm hanging around his neck on a silver necklace.

"That's a nice reason. What's his name?"

"It's Kasen."

"Nice. Is he here in the audience?"

Unfortunately, Crystal was just finished with the balance and broken out of his previous state. He looked up and eyed the Red Ninja sharply. "I don't think that is any of _your_ business. Don't you have anyone else to annoy with your presence?"

Kai felt the anger rising inside him. He was just trying to be nice. But the other one didn't seem to care about even _pretending_ to work together.

He could feel himself starting to lose his temper and it took him a lot of concentration not to _literally_ burst into flames in front of the cameras.

Not sure for how long he would be able to contain himself and his element, the Master of Fire rushed to the studio exit.

* * *

" _93 bottles of tea on the wall, 93 bottles of tea._

 _Take one down and pass it around, 92 bottles of tea on the wall."_

Lloyd hummed while greasing the second of three cake tins Ashley had asked him to prepare, while she was gathering the ingredients for their cake.

To his own surprise, the young Green Ninja was enjoying this little task and he was making sure not to miss a single spot.

"Wow, really good job." A female voice said. Lloyd turned around and saw Ashley inspecting the already finished tin. He hadn't noticed her coming back from the pantry. He tensed. _I hope she didn't hear me sing._

"Uhm, thanks. My uncle has taught me that, no matter how simple the task may appear, you should always try to do it at your best."

"Your uncle sounds like a smart man. Probably not as smart as me but still pretty smart."

 _He's definitely not as pretty…_ Lloyd thought, blushing slightly. "So, uhm… what kind of cake are we going to bake?" He quickly enquired.

"I was thinking of a Red Velvet Cake. It looks amazing _and_ it tastes amazing, too. And it's actually not that difficult to prepare."

"Sounds all good to me." Lloyd agreed.

"Although, if you prefer, we can also make it a _Green_ Velvet Cake instead."

Ashley presented two small bottles containing the two different options of natural liquid food colouring.

"N-no, r-red is fine with me." The Green Ninja's blush deepened when he realized that he was staring at the girl's scarlet hair during his reply. "But we may have to deal with Kai's ego if we make a cake in _his_ colour."

Ashley laughed. "Oh, don't worry. I am sure we can handle that."

Lloyd joined in, feeling more relaxed again. But then…

"So, tell me, what was that song you were singing earlier?" The girl asked.

"N-nothing." Lloyd was sure that his face now matched the red food colouring.

But, of course, Ashley would have none of it. "Well, _nothing_ sounded really nice. And I am an amazing singer, so why don't _you_ teach _me_ something?"

"I-I'd rather not."

"C'mon, you looked really relaxed earlier. Consider it as part of your training."

When she flashed him a bright smile, Lloyd had no choice but to accept his fate. Who would have known that the Green Ninja could be _that_ easily defeated?

"Alright, it goes like this: _92 bottles of tea on the wall, 92 bottles of tea_ …"

* * *

Outside the studio building, Kai leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. He could feel himself regaining control of his emotions and consequently of his elemental powers.

Maybe he should have chosen the party entertainment job instead of the baking competition …

The Red Ninja felt the phone in his pocket giving a short buzz. He removed the device and looked the newly received message. It was an image.

' _Keep calm and bake on_ ', it said in capital white letters on, of course, a bright pink background.

Smiling, Kai looked for the sender and instantly recognised the number – although he had not used it for quite some time.

This meant that Skylor really was watching him (and his teammates) on TV …

'Thanks Sky. Feeling much better already.' He couldn't think of any better reply, so he just added a smiley face to make his statement more convincing.

Another message appeared on his screen, sent from the same number.

' _You've stood up to so many enemies, including my father. Don't let this guy get to you.'_

'I won't.'

' _Btw, if you ever want someone to talk to outside of your team (or even just some noodles), you'll know where to find them.'_

'Might take you up on both.'

' _I hope you will.'_

'I promise. But I better go back now before they'll start to miss me. Talk soon.'

' _Rumour has it that some people watching the show on TV are missing you already. Bye xx'_

Feeling a lot better than before, Kai went back inside.

When he entered the studio, he noticed that the noise level had increased quite a bit during his absence. Jay and Tori had decided to join into Lloyd's singing, very loud and, in the Blue Ninja's case, _very_ much off-tune. He also had changed the lyrics for the occasion, so _the_ _wall_ currently held _56 buckets of frosting_.

When she spotted him, Nya waved at her brother, a questioning look on her face. So, Kai walked over to her maroon and light blue kitchen stall.

"Hi sis. How are you doing?"

"I am good. But are you alright?"

"yeah, all fine. Really. I just needed a short break from…him." He gave a nod in the direction of his baking partner. "So, what are you doing?"

The Master of Water laughed. "Baking maybe?" She teased her brother. "We're melting chocolate for the fudge frosting, to be more specific. By the way, this is Dawn." She introduced her baking partner, a freckled girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Nice to meet you Dawn." After shaking hands, Kai then addressed his sister. "In case you haven't noticed it yet, your boyfriend can be just a tiny bit annoying sometimes."

Nya blushed. "I actually think it's kinda cute. And while he is his usual dorky self around other girls rather than acting all serious and trying to impress them, I know that I have nothing to worry about." She lowered her voice: "I am so glad Nellie is too busy talking to the jury, so she won't bother him either."

Kai looked over to the pink sofas where their host was chatting to the three judges, two men and one woman. The first one was Nellie's own manager, the all-famous Brown Ninja.

The Red Ninja somehow recognised the other two people's faces, most likely from those magazines that used to feature the Ninja as well, but he couldn't remember their names.

The second man had dark spiky blue hair and ocean blue eyes, he was dressed in a simple grey shirt and blue jeans. If Kai remembered correctly, he was the chef in one of the most up and rising restaurants in Ninjago City, even at his young age.

The young woman had long brown hair, she was wearing a tight pink short sleeved top and a diamond amulet around her neck. The petite figure and the way she kept her upright posture even while sitting on the soft sofa suggested that she could be a classical dancer.

But Dawn burst out laughing. "Oh, I don't think you have to worry about Nellie hitting on Jay. Haven't you noticed how flustered she is around _Dareth_?"

After watching the four people on the sofas for a few minutes, Kai and Nya agreed with the other girl's conclusion. Nellie _definitely_ had a thing for the Brown Ninja.

"I think the chocolate is ready to be added to the sugar now." Nya said. "You are more than welcome to stay with us, Kai, but maybe you should try to fix things with your teammate?"

"I guess you are right. I'll leave you girls alone then."

"Excellent." Nya winked at him. "Now we can _finally_ continue our discussion about fashion and make up and so on."

"Do you remember what exactly we were talking about earlier?" She then asked her new friend.

"You were just telling me how you've rebuilt the _Destiny's Bounty_ pretty much all by yourself." Dawn answered.

* * *

When Kai returned to the red kitchen stall, the cheesecake was already in the oven, so the Master of Fire helped his partner tidy up their bench.

"I have to admit that the chocolate chips were very well cut. I guess you are able to handle a knife and not as useless as I had thought." Crystal told him.

"Thanks." Kai replied. _I guess that's as good a compliment as I will ever get from him._

"They also taste very nice." The black-haired boy added.

Most of the chocolate chips had been used for the preparation of the cake, but some were still left, so Kai took a handful. Crystal was right. They were very well cut and even more delicious.

The team in front of him had finished both their cake and their song and Jay was licking the spatula and bowl with leftover orange chocolate ganache. Kai just couldn't resist but flick a few of the morsels at the Blue Ninja.

* * *

"One more and… done."

Jay and Tori high-fived. They had just finished decorating the top of their cake as a 'pac-man' level with mini M&M's.

The blonde girl carefully took the cake to the counter where some of the other completed cakes were already sitting and Jay took the opportunity to taste some of the chocolate orange frosting.

Suddenly, he felt a little pain at the back of his neck, caused by the impact of a small dark chocolate chip on his skin. Jay turned around and, dipping the spatula back into the frosting, grinned at the Red Ninja.

"I think you have just made a biiig mistake my friend… prepare to face the consequences!"

* * *

 **The judges (OCs) are: Rin (Kiritoandrinforever) and Kate (MLPninjagomore13).**

 **This story has only two chapters left and I am really hoping to have it complete for my one-year anniversary at the end of this month (although these plans usually don't work out the way I would like them to).**

 **It shouldn't be too hard to guess what is going to happen in the next chapter :P.** **And in the final chapter, we will of course have the winner of the** _ **Great Ninjago Bake Off**_ **. So I would like to ask you to please vote for your favourite team (either in the poll on my profile or in a review):**

 **Jay and Tori / Orange Chocolate Cake**

 **Zane and Arctic / Mango Cake**

 **Kai and Crystal / Chocolate Chip Cheesecake**

 **Cole and Lia / (Pea and) Carrot Cake**

 **Lloyd and Ashley / Red Velvet Cake**

 **Nya and Dawn / Chocolate Fudge Cake**

 **Some comments on the cakes:**

 **For some of the cakes, there are many different versions and I had to pick a recipe.**

 **For the chocolate chip cheesecake, I went for a baked cheesecake (I looove baked cheesecake) on a crumb base.**

 **To make an Orange Cake, you can use juice or zest (or both) or just flavouring, I generally like using zest in all citrus-based cakes.**

 **I have never made a mango cake so I had to look up some recipes and really liked the chiffon cake with a mango and whipped cream frosting (need to try it myself soon).**

 **The carrot cake recipe mentioned in this chapter (without the peas!) is my personal favourite version of this cake.**

 **You really can make a Green Velvet Cake and it actually looks very nice**

 **And finally, Chocolate Fudge Cake needs no explanation at all :)** **, it's just sooo good in any version!**


	6. The Great Ninjago Frosting Fight

**This is the next-to-last chapter of this story. Yay, I am actually ahead of schedule with my updates - and even though it's my Birthday today :).**

* * *

Chapter 6: The Great Ninjago Frosting Fight

Jay really was lightning-fast, there was no doubt about that.

Before Kai even _understood_ what was going on, multiple blobs of brown frosting already covered his fire red apron.

"This means war!" The Master of Fire exclaimed, when another dollop of frosting landed in his hair, throwing a handful of chocolate chips as his friend.

"Fine with me." Jay shouted back, flicking his spatula again. "But you might want to reconsider your choice of weapon."

That was when Kai realised that Crystal had already washed the bowl he had used to prepare the cream cheese mixture. Without this, the Red Ninja would have a huge disadvantage against his blue-clad brother and his orange chocolate ganache.

Kai quickly scooped the remaining chocolate chips into a small plastic container and took cover behind his kitchen stall. He quickly searched through the cupboards of his kitchen area, in the hope of finding something useful among the basic ingredients they had been provided with, preferable a squeeze bottles with _any_ kind of sauce in it...

From directly above him, Kai could hear Crystal operating the mixer on their bench top. Of course, why would _he_ care about the Red Ninja's predicament?

But, much to Kai's surprise, Crystal suddenly crouched down next to him, two small bowls with a white, fluffy substance in his hands. "Here." He handed one of the containers to his baking partner.

"Egg white." Crystal explained, noticing the questioning look on the other's face. "We will _never_ be friends, but we're still a team. You know… bakers' honour and such..."

Kai grinned. "A baker never leaves another baker behind, huh?"

"Well, you _can_ put it like that if you have to..." Crystal replied, shrugging his shoulders in a slightly annoyed way. "So, as one of Ninjago's great heroes, you'd better come up with a plan what we're gonna do now?"

Kai briefly pondered their different options. "We should definitely stay down, so we can surprise him. Jay won't expect you to work _with_ me; maybe if you distract him from one side, then I'll attack from the other."

"Alright, I'll go this way then." Crystal chose the right side, the one between the two rows of baking stalls, so Kai took the left, outside way. He kept his cover and, using his skills of a ninja, slowly and silently moved around their kitchen. As expected, Jay had his back turned to him.

But it was not only Kai's baking partner who kept the Blue Ninja busy. After Kai's disappearance, Jay and Tori had directed their attention – and their frosting – first at each other and then at Cole and Lia, who had, of course, immediately fought back with leftover cream cheese frosting and 'cannonballs' made of coloured icing and marzipan.

* * *

"What's going on here?" The Green Ninja asked, looking up from their masterpiece. Lloyd had been so focused on spreading and smoothing the frosting over their Red Velvet Cake that he had completely missed what was happening in front of them.

Ashley snickered. "I thought a Ninja should always be alert and observant to his surroundings."

He blushed. Again. "I-I wasn't expecting any serious threat to the safety of Ninjago at a baking competition, but I probably should have known my teammates better…" He grinned widely. "How dare you start a food fight without _me,_ the _amazing_ Green Ninja?" Lloyd called to his friends. He quickly grabbed the mixing bowl with the remaining vanilla buttercream from their bench, ready to join in the fight.

"Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon. Stop. Right. Now." A firm female voice held him back.

The boy turned around and gave Ashley an astonished look. "Huh? Weren't you the one who has told me earlier to have more fun?"

"And you should. But first we get our amazing cake out of the line of fire." She pointed towards the counter at the front of the competition area, four finished cakes were already sitting on it. "You were the one who told _me_ that you should always try to do things at your best. And _this_ …" she looked at the bowl in Lloyd's hands, "is not going to last us long."

When Lloyd returned from his mission of taking the cake to its safe place, Ashley was already mixing a paste from lemon juice and icing sugar. "This icing is very fast to prepare and _very_ sticky." She explained. "And don't you think…" she asked Lloyd, taking the half empty bottle of red food colouring, "… that your friends could do with a bit of pink as well?"

* * *

Zane looked at his baking partner, who himself was silently observing the mayhem happening behind and next to them. Arctic's face still displayed very little emotion, so the Nindroid was trying to figure out what the other was thinking.

Finally, the other boy spoke: "Does this happen frequently at your home?"

"We used to have regular food fights when we first met each other, but we have not had one for quite a while." Zane replied. "To be honest, I am rather surprised that they would do this in front of the camera, for all of Ninjago to see us on the television."

 _Maybe you are not as grown up as you like to believe._ P.I.X.A.L. remarked just to him. _  
_

"It does look like a very entertaining activity though…" Arctic observed.

"It is." Zane replied with a polite smile. "We still have some whipped cream left from our Mango Cake, so would you like to try it yourself and oin in? "

Arctic's face lit up. "Heck, yeah."

* * *

"This is so much better than watching a movie." Dawn commented.

She and Nya were sitting on their kitchen counter, sharing their leftover frosting and amusedly watching the fierce fight between the other ten contestants.

"You are right." Nya agreed. "And this chocolate fudge frosting is sooo good, it would be a shame to waste it on the others." She licked her spoon.

"I have to say I would have never expected something like _this_ to happen." Dawn told her. "Who would have thought you ninja to cause such a mess... I mean, on purpose and not just accidentially. Especially Lloyd… he always appears to be so serious and mature."

Ninjago's famous Green Ninja, together with Cole, was currently holding down Jay, while instructing Ashley to write on the blue apron with some kind of pink goo.

Nya laughed. "Oh, believe it or not, Lloyd used to be the biggest prankster of us all. But then a lot of…" Her face fell. "well,… stuff happened to him, making him grow up _wayyy_ too fast. So, it is really good to see him having fun."

"So, you mean this is similar to their normal behaviour at home?" Dawn sounded surprised.

The Master of Water shrugged, as she watched Cole and Kai trying to shove frosting down each other's shirts. "I guess when you live in a household of six young elemental masters, at some point you just stop thinking about what is _normal_ …"

"I guess you are right." Dawn replied. The blonde girl smirked, when she saw that Jay had finally been released and was standing up. "Now, could you please remind me which of them was your _boyfriend_ again?" She teased her new friend.

Nya sighed. "Yes, it's the one with _Zaptrap_ written in pink letters all over his apron. And, in case you have decided to forget that as well, my brother is the guy with the orange chocolate highlights in his hair and little green balls of icing in his nose…"

Hearing them mention his nickname, Jay looked over and winked at the girls. "Kai, there are still two people with clean aprons at the back. And one of them is your sister…"

"You are right, we should change that _right now_." Her brother agreed.

Nine heads turned around and Nya saw nine spoons with frosting (or other) being aimed at them.

But at that moment, a timer went off. "Time out." Kai shouted. "Our cake is done."

"Looks like we've just been saved by the bell." Nya whispered to her baking partner, causing Dawn to giggle.

Everyone immediately stopped their activities and watched as Crystal took the beautiful and delicious smelling cheesecake from the oven. He carefully placed it on the counter with the other five finished cakes.

"I think I'm done as well…" Cole commented.

Zane nodded. "And it should soon be time for the judges to assess our cakes."

"Okay, we're out of frosting anyway." Jay replied.

"I wouldn't say we're _out_ of it…" Lloyd remarked, looking down at his frosting-covered apron. "It's just been… relocated."

The other ten contestants joined Crystal and Kai at the front of the baking area, all giving high-fives to each other (and Jay quickly kissed his girlfriend, claiming that he only wanted to make sure she would end up with at least some frosting on her lips and cheeks), before taking off their soiled aprons.

"Careful with the aprons." Lloyd reminded his teammates. "We still need to sign them." The Ninja had agreed for their used aprons to be auctioned off on ninbay, in aid of the Grant-a-Wish Foundation.

"I've never noticed before how terrible your throwing accuracy is." Cole told Kai. "I am really glad you weren't the one handling the Shurikens of Ice…"

"It was still good enough for a big boulder like you." The Master of Fire retorted. Cole's black apron showed multiple blobs of egg white.

"And I think we all understand now how Lloyd must have felt after that book launch..." Jay laughed. But he became silent as soon as he noticed his teammates glaring at him. They had agreed not to unnecessarily remind the Green Ninja of this unpleasant experience. "Uhm, sorry kid, I didn't want to upset you…"

Lloyd shook his head. "Oh, don't worry, I really don't mind. But you are wrong…" He replied with a mischievous smile on his face, secretly taking one of the baked delicacies from the counter behind him. "You have no idea how it feels to have a complete cake in your face. Not _yet_ …"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading. And if you haven't done so yet, please vote for the winning team/cake of** _ **The Great Ninjago Bake Off**_ **(review or poll, details are in the previous chapter)** **. It's a really close decision at the moment!**


	7. All well that bakes well

**This is the final chapter of the story. Today is my first anniversary on this site – and I even get to celebrate it with six delicious cakes made by our favourite Ninja :D!**

 **Had some trouble uploading again, so I hope this is working now!**

* * *

Chapter 7: All well that bakes well

"How long can it take to wash a little bit of cake off his stupid face?" Kai complained, his eyes fixed on the studio door.

Most of the frosting-covered contestants had quickly washed their faces and hands a at the kitchen sinks. They were now seated again on the pink sofas, chatting happily between each other, while waiting for the judges to assess the cakes and make their final decision.

And they were also waiting for Jay and Nya to return. After getting a _very_ creamy Mango Cake thrown into his face, the Blue Ninja needed a more thorough clean than his friends, so he had gone to the dressing room for that. In the meantime, his girlfriend and Acry, the show's make-up artist, went looking for a fresh shirt.

"I think they wanted to save some of the cake for the judges." Cole retorted. "And to be fair, it wasn't just a _little bit_ of cake."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Lloyd mumbled, looking down. It was the first thing he had said since the earlier _incident_. "I guess I've managed to ruin Zane and Arctic's cake and everyone's day."

"There is no need to apologise, Lloyd." The Nindroid replied. "According to P.I.X.A.L.'s calculation, there was a probability of 94.2% for this to happen. Which means if _you_ had not done it, then most likely someone else would. And please do not worry about using our cake."

"I thought it was funny." Arctic added. "And I have learned so much from Zane today, that I am actually looking forward to making another cake again soon."

"It _was_ funny." Kai stated firmly, and the other contestants nodded in agreement. "You _really_ need to stop worrying so much."

"But I think right now _you_ are worried that your sister is _licking_ the cake off her boyfriend's face…" Ashley commented, making almost all people present burst of into laughter. Kai, however, just gave her a dirty look, silently telling the red-haired girl he was undecided whether to set _her_ on fire right now or to save his energy for Jay, just in case.

But when his two teammates returned to the studio, he couldn't help but join into the laughter instead.

Jay was dressed a bright pink T-shirt, with the _Great Ninjago Bake Off_ 's title and logo printed on the front in white.

"Looking good, Jay. The colour somehow reminds me of ol' times." Cole laughed.

"Yeah, do you still have that dress?" Kai asked. **[Remember** _ **The Snake King**_ **XD?!]**

"Shh," Jay hissed. "I thought we've agreed to _never_ mention this again?!"

"Did we?" Cole grinned at his best friend. "Oops…"

"I cannot recall this conversation from my database." Zane shook his head. "But P.I.X.A.L. and I agree that the shirt suits you very well."

"Ah, don't be jealous. Every contestant will get a t-shirt." Nellie, who had just entered, chimed in. "But I just wanted to let you know that the judges have made their decision, so if you could please follow me to meet them. And Jay… you still have a piece of mango in your hair."

She led them to another, smaller studio set up as a country style dining room. To everyone's surprise, not the slightest bit of pink (apart from Nellie and Jay's clothing) was found in this room, but the predominant colours were white and light blue instead.

"Usually, the contestants would be called in one by one, but we have decided to tell you all together this time." The presenter explained, before taking her seat with the other three judges.

A white wooden dining table was in the centre of the room, six part-eaten cakes (including one rather deformed one) standing on it. Nellie and her colleagues were sitting on one side of the table, facing the group of contestants who had just entered 'their' room.

"Welcome back to the final part of our wonderful baking contest." The presenter spoke to the camera. "All our teams have done a marvellous job but unfortunately, every competition can only have one winner. Or two, in this case. So, let me introduce our three wonderful judges who had to make this incredibly hard decision."

Nellie pointed at the browned-haired girl with hazel eyes. "Kate is a graduate of the _Marty Oppenheimer School of Performing Arts_ , best known for her performance in _Ninjago on Ice_. And I am excited to reveal that she will be the host of the next season of _Dancing with the Stars_. And who knows, maybe we will also see some of today's contestants there again…" She winked at Cole.

"No way." The Black Ninja grumbled, vigorously shaking his head.

Nellie was unflustered. "Rin" The camera focused on the young man with spiky dark blue hair. "is the chef of _Kirito and Rin's_ , one of the hottest restaurant in Ninjago City. And last but most certainly not least…" "… we have the amazing Dareth, Brown Ninja and Grand Sensei at the famous _Mojo Dojo_. No further introduction is needed so I am very happy to hand over to them now."

"Thank you, Nellie." Rin replied politely. "We have tried and very much enjoyed all six cakes. Before we announce the winner, Kate and myself would like to give you some feedback on your performance. The three main points are: presentation, taste, and teamwork. Kate, would you like to start with the first team?"

"I'd love to." The young woman smiled at Jay and Tori: "I really liked the presentation of your cake, the pac-man design was very pretty and the decoration gave a nice crunchy texture to the cake."

"I agree." Dareth added, picking another yellow mini M&M off the top.

"The taste was lovely, the orange chocolate flavour was fresh but not too strong." Kate continued. "Also, it looked like you enjoyed working together. Including during the food fight – although you also seemed to have fun fighting _against_ each other. All in all, really great job." Jay and Tori high-fived.

"I will continue with the next team." Rin stated. "Zane and Arctic: Your presentation was very… interesting. Neither of us have ever seen a person 'wear' a cake before, like a fashion model."

Jay blushed, when all heads turned to him and laughter could be heard from the live audience.

"But don't worry, we have seen the cake in its original state." Rin said. "It looked lovely and we were extremely lucky that we still got to taste it. In all honesty, it was the best mango cake I have ever tried. The base was light and fluffy, a perfect combination with the fruity cream. Also, you have shown good teamwork; it is always great to see people who are willing to share their knowledge or are interested in learning new skills. Also, we were very impressed how eventually you have combined your knowledge and experience, to build the frosting catapult from tins, spoons and rubber bands. Well done."

"The next team are Kai and Crystal." Now it was Kate's turn again. "Again, your cake looked lovely and it was delicious. I love baked cheesecakes in general, and this one was exceptionally good. It was perfectly cooked, not raw but not too dry either. Your timing was obviously perfect _in every aspect_." She winked at Nya and Dawn. "Unfortunately, we had to deduct some points for the lack of teamwork…"

"Hey, I have made the chocolate chips." Kai interrupted.

"And we believe that cutting them yourself from high quality chocolate instead of using cheap chocolate chips from a pack has made a difference in both the taste and the look. Also, you have managed to work together during the frosting fight. So, well done to you as well."

Next up were Cole and Lia. "Excellent teamwork. You were the only team where _both_ partners have contributed to the recipe and not only to the execution." Rin told them. "And this was the first time, we've ever seen contestants modify their recipe _during_ the competition, creating a completely… novel experience. While all of us judges still prefer the regular carrot cake, we were very impressed with this approach. The frosting was delicious and your decorations were very pretty and fitting for your _unique_ cake. Excellent job!" He gave them a thumbs-up with his bandaged right hand.

"Your cake looks beautiful, both from the outside and when cut." Kate was referring to Lloyd and Ashley's Red Velvet Cake. "The sponge has a deep red colour and the perfect silky texture. And it tasted lovely, especially in combination with the delicious, smooth frosting. Also, you have made a good team, while both baking and fighting your friends."

Nellie gave Lloyd a genuine, friendly smile. "Yes, I was very happy to see you enjoy the competition, after what happened… you know… at the book launch."

"Thanks. I-I actually had a really good time." Lloyd replied, much to everyone's – including his own – surprise.

" _Most_ of you have worked very well together and this also applies to our final team, Nya and Dawn." Rin commented. "Your good teamwork was also reflected in your wonderful cake. The chocolate sponge is soft and fluffy, while the frosting is rich and deliciously chocolatey. The chocolate shavings on the top and sides look great and give it your cake a hint of crunchiness. But while all parts of your cake were already great on their own, they were even better when coming together. I should mention that chocolate cake is my favourite cake – so I have tried a lot of them – and I think you have come pretty close to making the _perfect_ chocolate cake."

"It's my favourite, too." Kate agreed. Dareth, who had been stuffing his face with cake, only nodded in agreement.

"It sounds like our six teams have all done an amazing job." Nellie concluded. "I hope you've still managed to pick a winner…" She laughed.

"Yes, we have." Kate answered, handing the host a sealed envelope. "Although it really was a close decision **[yes, it was!]**."

"This is great news. And it means we are finally reaching the grand finale of this year's _Great Ninjago Bake Off_." Nellie announced. She then nudged her manager. "You need to get the trophies." She whispered to him.

The Brown Ninja dropped his small fork, excitedly jumped up and pranced out of the studio. He soon returned, proudly holding two ugly oversized golden cupcakes in his hands. Danni, Nellie's assistant, followed him with a large presentation cheque.

"In addition to the prize money, our winning team will receive a trophy for each member and and their recipe will be featured in my next book _The ultimate Master of Cupcakes, Volume 2_ **[I had to put my username somewhere in the story]**."

The TV host opened the envelope. "The winners of the 2016 _Great Ninjago Bake Off_ are: Nya and Dawn."

She embraced the two girls in a long hug. "Congratulations, you totally deserve it." She told them with a huge smile on her face.

* * *

After exchanging goodbyes with the judges and their baking partners, the Ninja went to say goodbye to Nellie.

"Congratulations, your win really _was_ well deserved." The host of the _Great Ninjago Bake Off_ repeated her earlier statement to Nya. "I was _very_ impressed with your baking skills."

"Uhm... thanks?" The Water Ninja replied, slightly embarrassed by the praise. And also confused that she had unintentionally found a way to gain the blonde girl's respect.

"I am sorry I was a bit rude to you earlier." Nellie apologised, a careful smile on her face. "Are we okay?"

"No worries, I wasn't too friendly either. So yeah, we are fine." Nya smiled back and hugged the other girl. "And thanks again."

"And I am sorry we have caused such a mayhem." Cole said to the TV presenter.

"Are you kidding me?" Nellie exclaimed. "The show has _never_ had better ratings. And we've already got a few offers from magazines who want to do a special feature on your frosting fight. And the _Ninjago Toy Company_ are planning to make a limited edition of _Cake Face_ , with different coloured ninja masks. Ah, this is _so_ exciting!"

Cole was less excited about the news though. When they had signed up for the competition, they had given up all media rights to the producers and the TV station, in exchange for the (guaranteed) prize money. _Maybe from time to time it wouldn't be such a bad thing if we still had a manager…_

But Nellie gave him an understanding smile. "By the way, those things were not included in your original contract, I've already had Dareth check that. So, if it's okay with you, he's going to negotiate your _new_ share with the producers."

Cole smiled back. "That would be great, thanks."

"No, thank you." She gave a quick hug to all six Ninja. "And I would love to see you all at the next book launch."

"We'll see about that."

As they left the studio, they saw Ashley standing outside.

Kai nudged his younger friend. "C'mon, I know you want to ask her out."

Shaking slightly, the Green Ninja walked over to the red-haired girl. "H-hi Ashley."

She turned around and smiled at him. "Hi Lloyd. You finally managed to get away from the demon in pink?"

"Yeah, although she isn't as bad as I thought… so, whatcha still doin' here?"

"Oh, I am just waiting for my driver, he's going to take me home."

Lloyd swallowed. "Uhm, Ashleena?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"I-I was wondering if you would like to m-hang out with me sometime?"

"Sure, I'd love to." Ashley took a marker from her yellow handbag and wrote her phone number on the pink T-shirt in Lloyd's hand. She winked at him. "Call me." She winked at him.

Firmly clutching the shirt, Lloyd returned to his teammates.

"Good job, li'l bro." Kai slapped him on the back. "See, it wasn't _that_ hard..."

Lloyd disagreed with the second statement, but he didn't want his friends to know that. "Well, as you've said earlier I've had a good teacher." He downplayed his nervousness - and his relief.

"Hey, Nya and I are going to meet Dawn and Tori at the Arcade on Saturday and everyone else is welcome to join, of course. Why don't you invite her to come as well?" Jay suggested.

"I think he might have had something else in mind." Kai informed the Blue Ninja. "But Arcade on Saturday sounds good to me."

"Yeah, to me too." Cole said.

"I would be happy to join in as well. May I also invite my baking partner? He also likes playing video games." Zane enquired.

"Sure." Jay replied. "And you know what else would sound good to me right now?"

"A shower?" Cole guessed.

Lloyd snickered. "Or new clothes?"

"Not a bad idea. Pink is _not_ my colour and my hair feels really sticky from all the mango cream… hey, maybe I could style it like Kai's!" Jay exclaimed. "But I was more thinking of some _proper_ food, after all this sweet stuff."

"What a brilliant idea, it could have been mine." Cole grinned widely. "Why don't we have dinner here in Ninjago City before heading back to the _Bounty_?"

"Fine with me." Kai approved. "And I think I know who is going to pay…" He looked over to his sister carrying her large presentation cheque. She had _generously_ donated her trophy; together with their aprons, it was going to be sold in aid of the Grant-a-Wish foundation.

Nya vigorously shook her head. "No way, _this_ money is for the _Bounty_ 's new rocket boosters." She sharply looked at her teammates. "No junk food, no video games, no hair gel. And no restaurant either. Just rocket boosters. But if everyone's willing to pay for themselves, count me in. Where should we go?"

"Burgers?" – "Pizza?"

"What about Master Chen's?" Kai suggested nonchalantly. "I am sure Skylor will be happy to give us a discount."

"Yay, noodles." Cole and Jay cheered.

"Yeah, we haven't had a lot of noodles since Chen's island…" Lloyd replied.

Nya and Zane had no objections to Kai's proposal either.

"So, Master Chen's it is then?" Cole concluded.

"Yes." Jay replied. "Now, c'mon, let's go, I am really hungry for some noodles now."

"Me too." LLoyd agreed.

Cole grinned. "And I've heard they have a great new dessert menu… might give that a try afterwards. I really hope they have cake!"

* * *

 **Thank you so much for all your support; I would have never expected** _ **anyone**_ **to read a story about the Ninja baking cakes ;), so I am very happy that so many people enjoyed it!**

 **Again, I would like to acknowledge:**

 **Ninja Pony (Guest) / Tori**

 **Twinfeather / ArcticHazard**

 **Kairocksrainbow / Crystal**

 **LiaLia15 / Lia**

 **Apocalypse Ninja / Ashley (this character and pairing have received a lot of positive feedback; I highly recommend reading AN's stories if you like her/them !)**

 **SpiritWolfMusicalWriter / Dawn - Congratulations on winning the GNBO** **!**

 **Guest / Danni**

 **Rosas-Sampaguita-Luzviminda / Acry**

 **Kiritoandrinforever /** **Rin**

 **MLPninjagomore13 /** **Kate**

* * *

 **I'm going to be very busy until mid June, so I probably won't be around much here for the next 2-3 weeks. But afterwards, I should have more time again over the summer!**


End file.
